the European Age of Reason
during the pontificate of Nicholas V.

In this and the following chapter I shall therefore treat of the age of
Faith in the East, and of the catastrophe that closed it. I shall then
turn to the Age of Faith in the West--a long but an instructive story.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: The paganization of Christianity.]

[Sidenote: Discovery of the true cross and nails.]

The paganization of religion was in no small degree accomplished by the
influence of the females of the court of Constantinople. It soon
manifested all the essential features of a true mythology and
hero-worship. Helena, the empress-mother, superintended the building of
monumental churches over the reputed places of interest in the history
of our Saviour--those of his birth, his burial, his ascension. A vast
and ever-increasing crowd of converts from paganism, who had become such
from worldly considerations, and still hankered after wonders like those
in which their forefathers had from time immemorial believed, lent a
ready ear to assertions which, to more hesitating or better-instructed
minds, would have seemed to carry imposture on their very face. A temple
of Venus, formerly erected on the site of the Holy Sepulchre, being torn
down, there were discovered, in a cavern beneath, three crosses, and
also the inscription written by Pilate. The Saviour's cross, being by
miracle distinguished from those of the thieves, was divided, a part
being kept at Jerusalem and a part sent to Constantinople, together with
the nails used in the crucifixion, which were also fortunately found.
These were destined to adorn the head of the emperor's statue on the top
of the porphyry pillar. The wood of the cross, moreover, displayed a
property of growth, and hence furnished an abundant supply for the
demands of pilgrims, and an unfailing source of pecuniary profit to its
possessors. In the course of subsequent years there was accumulated in
the various churches of Europe, from this particular relic, a
sufficiency to have constructed many hundred crosses. The age that could
accept such a prodigy, of course found no difficulty in the vision of
Constantine and the story of the Labarum.

[Sidenote: Political causes of paganization.]

Such was the tendency of the times to adulterate Christianity with the
spirit of paganism, partly to conciliate the prejudices of worldly
converts, partly in the hope of securing its more rap